What it means to feel joy, what it means to feel fear (and to overcome it); why cashmere is more expensive than sheep’s wool, why books are now a fashion item, and the inevitability of a return to poverty-chic courtesy Les Miserables.

After the break, 5 weekend reads.

Joy

Zadie Smith on the meaning of joy… from natural to drug-induced ecstasy.

My ridiculous heels were killing me, I was terrified I might die, yet I felt simultaneously overwhelmed with delight that “Can I Kick It?” should happen to be playing at this precise moment in the history of the world, and was now morphing into “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” I took the man’s hand. The top of my head flew away.

Don’t stop running

Fear; and overcoming it.

…I ran, I jumped, I did not die, and I now think of the incident fondly for providing me with two of my favorite bits of advice this year: “just jump” and “don’t stop running.” If used figuratively, those vague enticements to action are the stuff of cloying motivational posters. I like to take them literally, however, and repeat them when faced with the physical feats that have always terrified me, preventing me from participating fully in this thing or that.

From rags to richness

Why new film version of Les Miserables is bound to bring peasant chic back to the runways.

Even when [Fantine, played by Anne Hathaway] hits rock-bottom, losing her jewellery and her hair, she evinces a stark gamine glamour. Her buzz-cut accentuates her bone structure. The scooped neckline of her sober, rust-coloured dress flatters her long, locket-less neck.